After centuries of watching and decades of flights and experiments, Homo sapiens have proof that Mars is we. For the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.
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One of the most excite press releases we've ever read came from NASA. Instruments on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The Lander’s robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapours produced by the heating of samples.
"We have water. We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted," said proudly William Boynton of the University of Arizona, chief scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA).
The waiting was long but it was worth it. Now, after all speculations, optimism and pessimism, the possibility of life in outer space rises significantly.
"Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars," said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The robotic arm was digging the soil and it took the sample from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm reached that depth for the first time, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.
"Mars is giving us some surprises," said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil."
Besides confirming the 2002 finding from orbit of water ice near the surface and deciphering the newly observed stickiness, the science team is trying to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for biology and if carbon-containing chemicals and other raw materials for life are present. ■
A low pressure wave forming along a cold front will track across the New England coast this morning, bringing a period of rain, heavy at times for much of New England, especially for Maine today.
"We have water. We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted," said proudly William Boynton of the University of Arizona, chief scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA). 
The robotic arm was digging the soil and it took the sample from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm reached that depth for the first time, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.